West Papua Coalition to work on changing PNG Government attitude

The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation says Papua New Guinea remains the main stumbling block for the issue of West Papua to be raised by the Pacific Island Forum.

This follows the non-inclusion of the Papua on last week's Forum leaders agenda in Niue.

However the Papua problem had been discussed at last year's leaders summit in Tonga where it was resolved that PNG's Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare would discuss West Papua with Indonesia.

But the Coalition's secretary general Rex Rumakiek concedes that Sir Michael has effectively buried the issue after the Tonga meeting.

Mr Rumakiek says the coalition is now preparing to approach PNG leaders:

"Lobbying them to change their attitudes, change their minds. West Papua is like a flood and Somare cannot stop it. And if possible [we] can make it an election issue for the next election: there are many things that can happen in between... you know PNG politics, anything can happen."